In several places, we have referred to a dandelion when talking about case designs and layouts in the Visual Editor. So what the heck is a dandelion?

In the Visual Editor, when the author wants to create a group of nodes that can be easily and flexibly navigated as a set, she needs to create links between all of the alternatives. This used to take ages when done manually.

We now have a template in the Visual Editor where you can specify the number of nodes that you want in this set. Then the Visual Editor will insert that template with all the sibling nodes linked to each other. When there are many nodes, this visually complex puffball resembles a dandelion head.

There is also another type of template called ‘Branched‘ – this is much simpler in that the sibling nodes are not interconnected. Once the user has made their choice, they can only exit out the other end of the set.

When you are using the dandelion template, we suggest that you count up the likely number of options ahead of time, then add 1-2 extra nodes when you specify the node count in the template. This is because it is very easy to delete unwanted nodes afterwards but it is a big hassle to add 2 nodes to an existing set of 20 – you have to draw in 43 new links manually.